The Basic Cooking Techniques Beginners Should Learn

If you’re a beginner in the kitchen, it can be a bit overwhelming knowing where to start. But, don’t panic, there are a few simple things to learn that can be used as the basis for a vast array of dishes. Learning these basic techniques will give you a good foundation of knowledge, and mean you can begin cooking delicious crowd-pleasers in no time.

Chopping & Frying An Onion

Fried onion is the starting point to countless dishes - from pasta to casseroles to omelettes. Once you’ve learned to chop an onion, you’ll be able to apply the same technique to chopping up other veg. Quick tip: when frying, add a pinch of salt at the beginning as this helps to draw out the moisture in the onions and prevent them from burning.

Béchamel Sauce

A basic white sauce comprises of a roux, made from butter and flour, and milk. Once you’ve got this mastered, you can get creative. Add a little stock in the place of milk and you’ve got a delicious gravy for traditional pie: or add cheese and a little English mustard and you have a divine mac & cheese sauce - and the list goes on.

Boiling an Egg

It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how many people struggle with this task. Everyone has their own methods depending on the softness of egg they desire, but this is the most straightforward. For soft boiled eggs, bring a pan of water to the boil and gently lower your egg in with a slotted spoon. Remove after 4-5 mins for the perfect soft, gooey yolk. For a hard-boiled egg, cover the egg with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-12 mins. Once the time is up, plunge the egg into cold water to prevent the yolk from going gray. Quick tip: adding a splash of vinegar helps protect the shell from cracking.

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Send Your Burgers Over The Top With These Unexpected Toppings

Everyone has their secret for the best burger, from the meat they use right down to the bun. We’re not saying these topping ideas will make your burger the best, but then again, we’re not saying they won’t.

Avocado and feta. The perfect pairing on their own, but oh do delectably delicious when added atop your freshly cooked burger!

Salsa and Monterey Jack cheese. For a spicy southwest kick to your burger, it’s hard to go wrong with this fantastic combination.

Bleu cheese and BBQ sauce. For a different kind of kick, be sure to bust out the bleu cheese! BBQ sauce will complement it quite nicely and create a burger experience you won’t soon forget.

Pineapple and bacon. How you feel about Hawaiian pizza may just determine how you feel about this burger topping combination, but fans of Hawaiian pizza will kick themselves for never having tried it before and may never be able to go back to something else!

Granny Smith apples, brie, and honey mustard. Apples on a burger? Oh yes! And the tartness of Granny Smith apples blends perfectly with the creaminess of brie and the tangy honey mustard.

Guacamole. All on its own, guacamole makes for a great topping to any burger. Add the cheese of your choice if you prefer, and a strip or two of bacon wouldn’t be the worst either!

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Everyday Food Hacks You’ll Love

Here are three great food hacks we know you’ll love!

Keep taco shells from breaking with melted cheese. We all love taco night, but unless you’re a fan of soft shell there’s often some frustration involved when those cracked shells lead to huge messes. Next time, try sprinkling some cheese in the taco first and melting it in the oven, the cheese will add some strength to the shell and make that taco easier to eat!

Keep cake moist with slices of bread. It’s always great to cut into a large cake, be it for birthdays, family gatherings, or just because! But odds are you might not finish that cake in one sitting, and the exposed sides will get stale in short order. Bread to the rescue! Simply cover any exposed side of the cake with slices of bread to keep the whole cake from drying out.

Wrap banana crowns to keep them from browning. It seems like bananas can brown in a matter of minutes, especially during the summer. But if you’d prefer to eat them fresh rather than make another batch of banana bread, wrap the top of the stems of your next batch of bananas in plastic wrap and they’ll keep from browning for an extra couple of days.

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Delicious Ways to Use Up Old Bananas

It happens to the best of us, you definitely planned on eating those bananas but as soon as they started to brown they just became less and less appealing, and now you’re stuck with the prospect of yet another loaf of banana bread. Worry not! Here are three delicious ways to use up those old bananas that aren’t just another loaf of banana bread.

Banana ice cream. When you’re craving a sweet treat, banana ice cream is not only quick and delicious but healthy too! Simply slice up unused bananas and pop them in the freezer, then when the craving hits place those slices in a food processor and you’ll have delicious soft serve in a matter of minutes. Combine with peanut butter, chocolate sauce, or anything else you can dream of!

Banana pancakes. Warm and fluffy, and the perfect way to start any morning, bananas can be easily incorporated into most pancake recipes for a delicious breakfast. The truly daring can add some extra bananas on the top, or even some chocolate chips into the batter just to make them extra decadent!

Smoothies! Bananas make the perfect addition to just about any smoothie. An easy and delicious way to add more nutrients to your day, bananas are an essential element to all sorts of smoothies, be they fruit smoothies, green smoothies, protein smoothies, or any combination thereof.

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Essential Kitchen Skills: Carryover Cooking

For many of us, cooking skills are only learned out of necessity; when we move out on our own for the first time and are finally responsible for feeding ourselves. Skills were often developed through trial and error, handed down from our parents and grandparents, or even picked up from cookbooks and recipes. That said, we live in the age of convenience, where everything imaginable can be delivered, and cooking has become little more than novelty thanks to meal prep packages. For those who still love to cook from scratch, or those looking to learn, here’s a basic skill everyone should know: Carryover cooking.

Many of us already use the technique of carryover cooking, but sometimes unintentionally and without even realizing. Ever cook a roast to a recommended temperature but find it’s a little more done then you thought when finally cutting in? That’s the effects of carryover cooking. While we’re letting our foods rest straight out of the oven oven or off the grill, we’re letting them cool down, but we’re also allowing the residual heat from the outer ends of the food cook the inside.

Carryover cooking need not be something to avoid, however, it’s actually the best tool to avoid overcooking. Meats, particularly thick, bone in roasts, can be taken out of the oven a few degrees shy of their recommended cooking temps and allowed to come up to temperature on their own. The technique can even apply to eggs, taking scrambled eggs off the pan just before they’re done ensure they’ll be perfectly cooked by the time you’re ready to eat.

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Great cookbooks from around the world

If you want to spice up your life, and your kitchen! You absolutely must check out this selection of great cookbooks from around the world. Cookery can be an amazing, and rewarding way to immerse yourself in other cultures without ever leaving the comfort of your home. And, by sampling a range of cuisines you can experience new bold flavors and ideas, as well as finding new dishes that will become staples of your cooking. These tremendous cookbooks give you an insight and education into some of the best cuisines from around the globe.

Ottolenghi Simple-Yotam Ottolenghi

One of the most famed chefs and restauranteurs of the world, Yotam Ottolenghi inspired countless others and helped to give middle eastern food a glowing global reputation. This great book takes his challenging restaurant quality food and simplifies it for home cooking, all whilst retaining the style, skill, and flavor.

A Table in Venice:-Skye McAlpine:

Whilst Italian food is famed and well-known across the world, some of its regional variations have become lost in that homogenized shuffle. This debut book from Venice based writer Skye McAlpine offers an insight into what makes Venetian cuisine so special and unique, drawing on the city’s rich history of merchant trading and bakeries to bring light to an underrated and unheralded regional cuisine.

Nopalito: A Mexican Kitchen-Gonzalo Guzmán and Stacy Adimando

Nopalito enjoys a truly international reputation as one of San Francisco's most acclaimed and beloved restaurants, as well as a bastion of Mexican cuisine. This book brings all that knowledge and flavor to your table, as well as a vast array of salsa recipes that will have you wowing dinner party guests with ease.

Whether you’re an avid home cook, or just beginning to find your feet, you’ll find something to inspire you at www.bravojoy.com with their appetizing range of cookery related eBooks and audiobooks.

Luxury Food Without the Luxury Price

There’s nothing quite like a fine dining experience: Carefully prepared foods with succulent flavors and aromas that are sure to please any palette, beautifully served with exquisitely paired accompaniments! Yes, the finer foods are an experience all unto their own, but unfortunately, they usually come with a high price tag at most fine dining establishments. Fear not! Here are three luxury foods that are surprisingly easy to make at home.

Baked Brie. Bubbly and decadent, baked brie makes for the ultimate appetizer and is no more complicated than heating a wheel of brie in the oven, preferably on a baking stone. Voila! Pair with anything from fine crackers and preserves to dried fruits and nuts, this surefire crowd pleaser is deceptively simple to prepare.

Gravlax. Though nothing short of a delicacy, there’s nearly nothing to this wonderful Nordic dish! All it takes is some fresh salmon, some salt, sugar, pepper, and dill, and just a little bit of patience. Perfect for hors d’oeuvres and main courses alike, the only complicated part is figuring out how not to eat every last one of your carefully crafted canapes in one sitting.

Chocolate Ganache. Rich, creamy, and undeniably irresistible, chocolate ganache is a tried and true favorite to finish off any meal. Although it may take a bit more practice than the first two dishes, the extra work is definitely worth it for this delectable dessert!

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Books for The Coffee Lover This Holiday Season

It’s one of the most commonly consumed beverages around the world, and a source of fuel for many of us in the morning. Coffee is a curiosity to some, a favorite for many, and an obsession for a few. For those who can’t seem to get enough of the caffeine-rich beverage, something special is in order this holiday season. Here are three books that will be absolutely perfect for the coffee lover in your life.

The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee by James Freeman, Caitlin Freeman, and Tara Duggan. For any and all questions about coffee, this book is a one-stop resource. The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee is nothing short of an encyclopedia for the coffee world and even comes complete with a few recipes for some coffee treats.

The World Atlas of Coffee: From Beans to Brewing by James Hoffmann. Although Hoffmann’s book contains much valuable and insightful information on brewing, where it truly shines is in its comprehensive tour of the world’s greatest coffee growing regions. Hoffmann himself is a world champion barista and CEO of a British roasting company, making him a reliable resource for all things coffee.

Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast. For those looking to dive a bit deeper and explore the effects of coffee on foreign policy, Uncommon Grounds offers a range of insights on the history and complexity of coffee and is ideal for the connoisseur and history buff alike.

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